Tatra case: Court to consider CBI's closure report on Oct 9

A special court today fixed October 9 for considering the closure report filed by CBI in the case related to alleged irregularities in the supply of all-terrain Tatra vehicles to Indian Army.

The matter, scheduled to be heard on Tuesday, was fixed for Thursday as the judge concerned was on leave.

CBI had earlier sought time to file documents relating to the case in which it had lodged an FIR on March 30, 2012 against Ravinder Kumar Rishi, promoter of Tatra Sipox UK Limited, and others, including unnamed officials of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Bharat Earth Movers Limited (BEML), a defence PSU.

In its 30-page closure report, the agency has claimed that allegations levelled against the accused in its FIR could not be substantiated during the subsequent investigation.

Rishi, a British national, unnamed officials of Ministry of Defence and others were facing the CBI probe for alleged irregularities in supply of Tatra vehicles to BEML by Tatra-Sipox UK Ltd.

CBI had earlier alleged that Tatra vehicles were procured from Tatra-Sipox UK Ltd despite the fact that a licence agreement regarding this was with M/s Omnipol, a Czech firm.

It had claimed that vehicles worth Rs 5,000 crore (approx) were supplied to the Army causing undue benefit to Tatra-Sipox UK Ltd and corresponding loss to Defence Ministry.

CBI had registered the case for alleged irregularities in assigning supply from Czechoslovakia-based Tatra, with which an agreement was signed in 1986, to Tatra-Sipox UK Ltd in 1997 showing it as original equipment manufacturer and fully-owned subsidiary of Czech firm, which was allegedly against rules.

However, in its closure report, CBI has said that its probe does not point to the guilt of any accused in the case.

On the alleged issue of wrongful loss caused to BEML and corresponding gain to Tatra-Sipox UK Ltd, CBI in its closure report said this could not be substantiated during its probe.

Rishi had been quizzed several times by CBI in connection with the case as he has a substantial stake in Tatra-Sipox UK Ltd.

CBI has lodged the case naming Rishi and unnamed officials of Defence Ministry and BEML for alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating under the IPC and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.